Day 11

Oh boy! I am feeling so exhausted, but in a good way.

Today was a great experience for me, I got to observe how my cooperating teacher administers tests. Since the periods are broken up into thirty-five increments, the students only had thirty-five minutes to finish the whole test (three pages front and back). That's a lot of work! When we were walking around the class as students were working I noticed that a lot of students were making the same mistakes. It was frustrating because all I can technically do is remind them to check their work and re-read directions. This test was going over fruit (they have been working on identifying, counting, and describing fruit lately) and articles in English language and when to use them. I'm glad I got to help with the test. After that the students had math and a teaching moment occurred to me, for the students who hadn't finished the test by the time the math teacher came to the class, instead of collecting the test I would take the students who had not finished to my office with me and let them finish there. I understand this may upset the other teachers if they don't have all the students present in their class and I would try to find a meeting ground. I just know if I was one of those students, hearing "hurry up! Only 3 more minutes!" I would freak out and be completely stressed. I don't believe that's how testing should be. I think it should be more relaxed and a chance for the student to show what they truly know.

During math class I went around and helped students with their problems. Even though this is taught in Mandarin, I'm able to follow what's going on very easily. The teacher has been working on double digit addition and one double digit numbersubtracting a single digit number and they just transitioned from doing horizontal problem to vertical problems.

When this class was over, I had a chance to work on my student teaching papers because my students had back to back specialists until lunch time and then Dr. Ballou, myself, and another student teacher practiced the song we will sing in thanks on Friday. It is called Jasmine Flower and is really beautiful. We practiced for about a half an hour and then went to lunch. I stayed at the school for most of my lunch break because I really wanted to finish a lesson plan. My goal is to finish, sign, and turn is as many documents to Dr. Ballou before he leaves as possible! That way I can focus more on teaching and less on paper writing. Only logical right?

After my break I went to three Chinese classes in a row taught by different teachers. Just to clarify, I only go to my class, P1B, but other teachers come in and teacher different subjects. When I start taking over and teaching, I will be teaching Engligh Reading and Oral Development which will be really nice since I am doing my TPA in literacy.

At the end of the last Chinese class the teacher told me that I got to choose which students may receive a sticker as a reward for being good. I was really happy that I was given this authority and that I will be the one who chooses every class! I am really working on being stricter with the students (which is really awkward for me) but I think I am starting to see some response from them. I know it will take a while for me to have the whole class under my control, I just need them to know I am serious and they will listen to me. That probably sounds a little iron-fisted coming across but look at it from my perspective; these students are used to extremely strict teaching and then I come in with a United States education which is based on community building, being comfortable, and being gentler which is not, by any means, a bad thing, in this situation however, it means they will shrug my warm instruction off because they aren't used to it. Since they aren't used to warm teaching, I have to change my style so they will respond. Yesterday during my observation debrief, Dr. Ballou said something that has stuck with me: If the students aren't paying attention, it's the teachers fault. A good teacher has the students' attention and they are engaged. A poor teacher does not have the students' attention and does not realize that the lesson tanked. This experience is going to force me to change my teaching style so I gain control of the class. An example of how I've already changed it is instead of asking a student to put something away nicely I tell them sternly to put it away now and they do it, eventually. This will take time but I know this will be fine. Anyway, I can see that by giving me the power to choose which students should receive a sticker reward for their behavior shows the students that I do in fact have authority in the classroom. Dr. Ballou and I were pretty excited about that this afternoon.

That's what has been going on here. It's so much fun working with the students and the staff. Everyone is so pleasant!

Hope you have a good day! =]